Entrepreneurship is helping balance the budget for the Gloucester, Massachusetts, schools. The school district has taken over management of an indoor ice hockey rink, is running concessions on two city beaches, and started its own school bus company. (MLF)

A 1996 U.S. General Accounting Office report indicates one-third of the nation's schools need $111 billion worth of repairs or partial replacement. Local school districts cannot keep up with enrollment increases or construction costs and will receive little help from federal or state governments. Capital improvement funding inequities are heating…

Describes the potential perils of corporate tax incentives for communities. Discusses practices that drain funding from public schools--tax abatements, tax-increment financing, and industrial bonds. Three sidebars are included. (LMI)